Review of a Museum Website

When navigating through the Seattle Art Museum’s website I found that some of the information was difficult to find at a glance. Now, this isn’t a bad thing, considering I had to read more about the museum in order to find the information, which the web designers would probably consider this a positive. The SAM’s mission statement describes a welcoming atmosphere where people can connect with art and think about how it relates to their own lives. The website offers interesting added information about the artist who have shown at the SAM or upcoming exhibitions as well as the dates of the shows. The website breaks up the information on an easy access side bar, now on view, upcoming, and past exhibitions. The website has a lot of information just on the home page alone. This information includes the SAM’s three different locations, SAM downtown, Seattle Asian Art Museum, and the Olympic sculpture park. I thought this was a good thing to have on the home page because once you click one you can see the collections that are at the different locations, basic information such as price of admission, hours of operation, directions, and other tourist information. Overall, I like the contemporary feel to the website. Since the website shows art of past, present, and future exhibitions, I would say that their website enhances their mission statement. The website is very easy to navigate which made me feel comfortable browsing through the content, and I saw a lot of artwork throughout the website. As far as effectiveness goes, I think that this website is getting the image that the SAM wants to portray across successfully. There are so many programs available that people probably wouldn’t know about unless they looked at the website. Like I said earlier there is a lot of information on this website, but with saying that, the site doesn’t look cluttered. I appreciate the quick tab bar that is on the home page. This makes navigating throughout the site very simple and an effective way to find the exact information you’re looking for. I was especially impressed that they have a children’s camp which is a great outreach program. One criticism that I would have is that I would like to see more of the artwork of the different shows. From the few shows that I looked at, there might be two pictures, but usually only one of an example of the artist work. I don’t think this gives an adequate impression of the art that is being shown, so I would like to see a few more pictures of the art. Ultimately, I was impressed with their website and I think it fits the needs and mission statement of the SAM.

http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/default.asp

Museum Review

I went to the Prichard Gallery at the University of Idaho. The current show is called SLAG: The Anti Art Glass. Their mission statement at the gallery is summed up by being a leader in presentation of contemporary visual arts in the Northwest. They also strive to encourage experimentation from emerging as well as established artists. The exhibit that is currently at the Prichard Art Gallery is a combination of different international artists who use glass in a mixed media approach to formal, aesthetic and cultural ideas.

There are artists in the exhibit who are familiar and those who are not with the glass art traditions. I have been in this gallery before and I do think it is a nice space to show art. I especially like that there is an upstairs segment to the gallery in which there is both art upstairs as well as a broader view of the entire gallery. As for the art that was being shown at this exhibit, it wasn’t exactly my sort of thing but since I am an artist as well, I can appreciate the art of others.

Overall, I thought the exhibit was very interesting. It made you want to look around at everything especially because some of the pieces were very odd. I thought the gallery lighting was well suited to the glass artwork. The appeal of the museum was very apparent. Nestled on the corner in downtown Moscow, this gallery is a quant little piece of the outside world of art in a small town. I enjoyed looking around this gallery. Because it was so open and inviting the gallery space was perfect for looking around at all the art. One of my favorite things about the gallery is the hardwood floor and the clean white walls as the background. The experience I had at the gallery was very fun. As I said earlier, the glass art was not really my thing. Some of the artwork was very out there. For example, there were two larger jars sitting next to one another, one had an eyeball in it and the other had a dropper that was dropping blood into the bottom of the jar. One of my favorite pieces there was a white beehive and a black beehive. They looked like something out of a children’s book and I thought they were very detailed. In my time spent at the gallery I felt like this space was very well used and I loved how open the gallery was.